Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Family Cruises Are Popular for Many Reasons


CLIA has just released the results of an online survey on family cruises.

We surveyed over 1,100 households and this is what we found: Families take cruises and they cruise often because the price is right, the value for money spent is outstanding and the cruise experience offers unique advantages over comparably priced land-based vacations.

* Almost half (46%) of respondents have taken two to four cruises with children under the age of 18; 15.2% have taken five to seven cruises, and 4.8% have taken more than 10.

* Over 83% of families said cruise vacations are very good or extremely good value.

* Over 73% said that their last cruise was the same price or less than a resort vacation, with almost 50% saying that the cruise was slightly or much less costly.

* Family cruisers listed many key advantages to taking a cruise over a family resort stay, including: the opportunity to visit multiple destinations (62.8%); the all-inclusive nature of a cruise vacation - accommodations, meals, entertainment and shipboard activities included in one price - (57.7%); onboard kids programs and facilities (30.2%); the variety of onboard amenities (28%); and onboard entertainment (20.3%).

* Over 36% of families said that the destination or itinerary was the primary deciding factor in choosing a family cruise. Almost 30% were most motivated by price.

* Almost 70% of respondents said that planning a cruise was easier than planning a resort vacation.

* The survey found that 44.3% of families spend about half their time together on a cruise, while 42.7% said they spend all or most of their cruise vacation together as a family.

* Over 30% of respondents said quality shared family time was the best thing about a cruise, while over 20% cited the hassle-free "don't need to plan anything" quality of a cruise as the most enjoyable feature of a vacation at sea.

The message we at CLIA get from these findings is that families love cruises, and cruises offer outstanding value.

What does this say to me..."book your cruise "Today"!

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